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Saturday, July 13, 2013

Who Does Your Girlfriend Think She's Fooling?

It's come to my attention that Lianne Spiderbaby (AKA Lianne MacDougall), a writer for online and offline publications like Fangoria, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Video Watchdog, FEARnet -- well, she used to be on FEARnet... Oddly enough, she's also the current squeeze of our old pal Quentin Tarantino has something more in common than just a love of film with her beau. She's also a big fan of Tarantino's "collage style" of art.

Lianna, host of the Rondo-award winning "horror multimedia" site Fright Bytes, has been taking whole swaths of other peoples' writing and passing it off as her own without any kind of acknowledgement. She's posted numerous articles on FEARnet as a column called "Spiderbaby's Terror Tapes," that have been largely based on other peoples' work.

First Example
The July 9, 2013 piece, "'Suspiria' with Barbara Magnolfi," pieced together sections of original writing along with chunks from Critical-Film.com, HighDefDigest.com, and EmpireOnline.com. Here's a visual example of the introduction to Lianne's interview (which is not plagiarized):

Without a doubt, Suspiria is Dario Argento’s best film (some of you may not feel the same, but I stand behind my choice), and one of the most atmospheric and artistic films ever made in the horror genre. It is the first in Argento’s “The Three Mothers” trilogy, which also includes Inferno and The Mother Of Tears. Argento was at the top of his proverbial game when directing both Suspiria and Inferno as they defy everything you've come to expect from horror films. Not only are they brimming with suspense and incredibly stylized violence, they are absolutely beautifully filmed.

Suspiria defines the horror film as a work of visual art. Scenes are lit with bright reds, greens, and blues making them look more like moving paintings than film. It's a masterpiece of visual filmmaking. Suspiria also includes one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time. Goblin, who would score numerous other films for Argento, provide a haunting score and one that uses strange human vocals, the sounds of whispers and gasps to compliment the music. It's an artistic choice that lends itself well to the film. In fact, it’s hard to imagine Suspiria without Goblin’s soundtrack. The 1977 giallo classic is an experiment with lighting, mise-en-scène and sound.

Rightly considered the pièce de résistance of Dario Argento's filmmaking career, the movie is sparse and plain as it follows a young American dancer named Suzy (Jessica Harper) through the stressful demands of a prestigious ballet academy. Over the course of the film, Suzy slowly discovers that the ballet studio is run by a nasty coven of witches.

But it’s the beginning sequence that sets Suspiria apart from all the rest – it starts out late in the night during a raging storm. A young woman runs screaming from the exclusive Frieberg ballet school. We see her hurtling, screaming through the woods, illuminated by lightning. After she arrives at a friend's apartment she peers through a window into the tumult, only for an arm to smash through one window pane and, in a loving, extended shot, suffocate her against the other. While her friend drums hysterically against the locked door the gloved hand repeatedly stabs the girl. In the next shot the stabbing continues, this time in full close up as the fiend winds a rope around the shrieking victims legs. Then, we cut to the friend running into the lobby of the apartment building for help. As she looks up towards a stained glass ceiling, the victim's head crashes through it in a hail of glass shards followed by her body. We cut to the blood-drenched corpse, suspended by the rope dripping blood onto the floor. Finally Argento pans the camera to reveal his next horror: the falling glass has impaled the friend to the ground, crucifix-like, the largest sliver having split her face in half. This is horror beauty at it’s finest!

Yeah, that's pretty blatant.

Rather than 'fess up to what she'd been doing, it's my guess that Lianne is going to throw her intern, Raven Cousens, under the bus. Why do I say that? Lianne announced the arrival of her "new evil henchman" in a post on her website on June 17, 2013. Now, all mentions of Raven have been removed from Lianne's site. So, don't be surprised if Raven is set up as the fall girl.

There's a small problem with the idea of Raven being the culprit in this plagiarism. It's not that Raven would have been ghost-writing (or ghost copy/pasting) pieces that were credited to Lianne. Instead, it's that the chronology doesn't add up. I say that because Lianne was lifting passages from other peoples' works before the announcement of Raven's internship.

Second Example
On May 6, 2013, Lianne (or someone being credited as Lianne Spiderbaby) posted on FEARnet's "Spiderbaby's Terror Tapes" in the article "'Popcorn' with Jill Schoelen." This time, Moria.co.nz supplied the lion's share of the content for the piece, either directly or via some loose paraphrasing. I'll just highlight the direct stuff and readers can compare the rest.

Maggie (Jill Schoelen), a student at USC film school, is plagued by recurring dreams that feature a terrifying man evoking Satan and other cultish horrors. At school, the film department’s funding has just been cut, but the department head comes up with an idea: holding a festival of old gimmick horror films in a soon-to-be-demolished theatre to raise funds. A film memorabilia expert shows them a film called The Possessor, which features occult sacrifices being conducted by Lanyard Gates, the guru of a film cult in the 1960s. Maggie is startled when the film shows things that appear in her dreams. As the festival begins, a masked madman starts killing off Maggie’s classmates and those closest to her. It also appears as though the killer wants one thing – Maggie. The story is a tad contrived – it is set up to suggest that Lanyard Gates is the killer but it turns out that the killer is someone else who fits into the contorted Lanyard Gates schema. The script does offer a few amusing lines. One student protests that there is more social relevance in one Police Academy film than in all of Ingmar Bergman’s!

The masterminds behind Popcorn were none other than Bob Clark and Alan Ormsby, who worked together on the frighteningly fabulous Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972), Black Christmas (1974) and Dead of Night (1974). However, they both took their names off of Popcorn because of all the controversy surrounding the making of the film. Ormsby wrote the script and used the name Tod Hackett. Although Bob Clark was on set everyday, he decided to be uncredited. It isn’t known why their names were removed, or why Ormsby was fired.

Mark Herrier was the replacement director, and Popcorn was his first feature. Popcorn comes with a great affection for the lost pleasure of attending a movie at the theater, and it even screens old refreshment and snack ads.Popcorn may have been more successful if it were released today – with such heightened nostalgic aspects, the film would have proven to be popular amongst the sequel-loving horror fans today. In particular, Popcornhas affection for the old gimmick films of the 1950s. Many of the gimmicks used in the film – the mosquito harnessed to fly across the theatre; insurance policies and warnings about dying of fright; electric buzzers on the seats; and odors pumped into the theatre are all gimmicks that William Castle used in the 1950s.Popcorn also challenged its audience with self-reflective postmodern sensibilities in away that wasn’t really experimented with until Wes Craven’s Scream.

I would advise St. Martin's Press, the publisher of Lianne's upcoming book, Grindhouse Girls (with an intro penned by Tarantino), to do their due diligence to make sure everything is properly vetted and footnoted.

Lianne Discusses Editing
Want a good dose of irony? Watch this video.

Full disclosure, a lot of the research for this piece was done by several other folks (and verified by me -- you can verify it yourself via cached versions of the pages). I'd hate to be accused of 1) plagiarizing someone else's work or 2) putting my name on an article that someone else wrote. Wouldn't that just be a terrible thing to do?

Stay tuned for updates in this story.

Update 7/13/2013 @16:26:
It's been an interesting morning to say the least. I've gotten a lot of feedback on this post and I appreciate everyone who's had something to say, good or bad. The comments to the post are very interesting and some of them are incredibly enlightening.

The video I posted above has been made private and the post about Raven Summers has been re-instated. Lianne's website went down for a little bit but it seems to be back. Likewise, some of her tweets have been up and then down later on. I thought I saw tweets about her individually apologizing to authors for the things she's cribbed but that seems to be down (and Twitter goes through a lot of hoops to try and disable caching of their stuff.

But, here are a couple of interesting tweets that I screen grabbed (despite being now blocked from following her):

Lianne reached out to me to ask me to take down this post but I told her I wouldn't. I figured that we've all had enough of disappearing posts and that doing so would merely fuel the (f)ire.

Update 7/14/2013 @09:29:

Update 7/16/2013 @15:58:
As noted in the comments below, Video Watchdog editor Tim Lucas has retracted his initial assessment of the situation and published a statement about the situation on his blog. This initial statement included assurances that the article Lianne penned for the next issue of VW was plagiarism-free. He has now updated that statement to say that it is not free of pilfered prose.

Unfortunately, new findings have forced me to retract a portion of yesterday's statement. John Charles has notified me that evidence of plagiarism has been found in Lianne Spiderbaby's coverage of EMANUELLE IN AMERICA. John is preparing a statement we will be posting later in the day.

I know of several writers who would do a much better job at writing and being honest in their craft that Tim may want to employ (or re-employ), including a few that Lianne ripped-off. Read more here.

Update 7/17/2013 @19:57:
Traces of Lianne's plagiarism keep disappearing from the web. Today all of the videos of her Rondo award-winning FrightBytes show went private, essentially removing all of the content from the YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, more writers are coming forward about being plagiarized. One of the latest is from Scared Stiff Reviews, another is from author Joe Wawrzyniak whose review of I Dismember Mama on IMDB found its way in part to FEARNet courtesy of Lianne. At some point I imagine that someone more ambitious than me will catalog all of these.

I appreciate you posting this. I was notified of this plagiarism on Wednesday, by way of an email that seemed like it could possibly be a little less than legitimate.

I attempted to access the FEARnet article, but all of her written articles had been removed by that time, and all I had was a screenshot of "her" 'Suspiria' review from earlier in the day. At this point it looks as though this is indeed a legitimate case of plagiarism.

I am very curious how many writers across the internet were copied? (No less than three in this individual review alone, and those three comprise nearly the entire article)

Doing a quick Google search, I discovered another instance of plagiarism in her Fearnet work.

Credited to Lianne, a piece about Stuart Gordon's DOLLS was posted in her column on FEARNET on May 12, 2013 at 12:00pm (cahe link -- http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AYECV2LtN4lQJ%3Awww.fearnet.com%2Fnews%2Finterview%2Fspiderbaby’s-terror-tapes-stuart-gordons-dolls-carrie-lorraine+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca).

In that cached article, she writes in synopsis, "They’re in the midst of a nice leisurely drive down a dirt road that’s been turned into a swamp by a torrential stock-footage rainstorm when their car breaks down and gets stuck. About the same time, though we don’t see this, Ralph (Stephen Lee), a sweet man-child, picks up a couple of snotty punk rock hitchhikers named Isabelle (Bunty Bailey) and Enid (Cassie Stuart). These two groups of people end up at the same old creepy mansion, rushing in for shelter from the rain. This is where things start to get interesting."

Doing a quick Google search, I have found that the same section appears in its entirety in a 2005 review of DOLLS posted on http://subtlebluntness.wordpress.com/2005/04/ by author Ron Hogan.

I can attest that it's very easy to write about horror films when you are passionate about said subject matter. Having to swipe or copy the work of other students of film is not only lazy, but it cheapens the passions of all the hard working individuals who take the time to have a voice.

I'll tolerate much, but to steal something because you can't be bothered to come up with your own idea when that is literally all you're being paid to do...

Oh, and Justin Osbourne is still a talented guy, he just made bad choices I think. Design is a grey area a little more so. He never passed off an entire piece of art as his. Someone just found out how he works and called him out.

If Tarantino is still making movies, I'm sure Lianne will still be writing in the months and years to come. I don't want to imply that Tarantino will help her out or that she's only getting by on his talents and PR people but that might help.

Things aren't all that great at Casa De Tarantino, however. I heard that QT has holed himself up in his personal movie Xanadu and isn't getting back to anyone, not even Eli Roth. He wasn't getting back to his assistant of years and years, Pilar Savone, for a while either. She called QT's manager to see what was up only to learn that Pilar had been canned. Surprise!

She apologized and the situation is more complicated than it looks. Get on with your lives. On her twitter account, it sounds like she is. She said sorry Let's move on, it's comic con time. Go cover something real and genuine.

I'm glad this seems to be being taken seriously by the community at large, and that Spiderbaby appears to be feeling ashamed. Though perhaps not entirely so, if she thinks it appropriate to ask that articles be removed from the internet...

I also want to add that, if one is semi-literate, it is not that difficult to string together something in the shape of an article. I see bad writing on famous sites on the regular. I also have caught plagiarism several times in my role as an instructor in HE. *All* of those cases but one were the result of laziness, a sense of entitlement, and arrogance. I see nothing different in this case.

“Lianne reached out to me to ask me to take down this post but I told her I wouldn't.” – DO NOT TAKE DOWN YOUR POST!!!! – Expose this phony to the Horror/Cult Internet Community ASAP!!! – Don’t worry she will do just fine being Tarantino’s latest flame and will milk every drop of her L.A. Connections to further her Fame Agenda!!!

"She apologized and the situation is more complicated than it looks. Get on with your lives. On her twitter account, it sounds like she is. She said sorry Let's move on, it's comic con time. Go cover something real and genuine."

Is this some kind of joke? Writing about films IS some people's lives and that job shouldn't go to the person with the best bone structure. More complicated than it looks? What, her unpaid intern is to blame? And do you really think that twitter apology that lasted a half an hour reads as sincere?

Why defend her? Why not encourage her to do something she's good at (besides stealing from people)?

Mirek at Latarnia Forums astute observation perhaps says it best: “Some of her supporters have made comments about "we all make mistakes," but let's be clear. Her plagiarism was not a mistake but a plan of action carried out through the months. Knowing that she was plagiarizing people's work, both online and in magazines like FAMOUS MONSTERS, she even had the nerve to campaign for a Rondo Best Writer award.” Cheers Mirek

There's a perfectly good reason Ms. MacDougall is a serial plagiarist - because when she's left to her own devices, she's awful at both writing and critical thinking. If you need proof, just check out her review for the remake of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE:

It's a terrible movie, one easy to critique - and yet she gets everything wrong, inventing her own ridiculous reasons to hate it and spewing a bunch of college-writing-class "film theory". It's bad writing, bad criticism, bad thinking, bad everything. Her resignation from the world of horror film journalism is a blessing.

The more this goes on, the more writers come forward, I hope. If you've ever written a horror review, I'd start googling pieces from your own writing and see if they come up on any of Lianne's various outlets. Remember, people, she got paid to write for a lot of these places. Paid for recycling other people's hard work.

The people who say, "We all make mistakes" seem to be forgetting. It's one thing to quote someone or lift a sentence you read years ago without realizing it. It's quite another to take things wholesale or "remix" them and claim them as your own (and then collect a pay check).

Even if she didn't get paid for the reviews, she's parlayed her success into a career.

Thanks to all who helped expose McDougall the Baby Spider’s plagiarism and make her do an honest day’s work instead of letting Tarantino’s glow and her undeserved St. Martins book deal lift her into unmerited celebrity!

Tim Lucas's backtracking and excuses in the latarnia forums are hilarious: http://thelatarniaforums.yuku.com/topic/11919/Rondo-Award-Winner-Nominee-Writer-Various-Film-Genre-Maga?page=1#.UeIcGm37Yqg

I think Tim likes pretty girls and will do anything to make excuses for them. Plus, she only plagiarized a few paragraphs in a long article, that's okay, isn't it? Shouldn't plagiarism be a percentage-based thing?

Just FYI -- Lianne is handing out some bull pucky about her getting death threats and living a stressful life for the last few months. I'm not sure why or how that plays into coping big chunks of other peoples' writing but, hey, do you feel bad for her yet?

Looks like Videowatchdog is now shilling for McDougall the Spider as anybody can tell she cut and paste her reviews with surgical precision Cherry Picking the best parts from other writers work! Videowatchdog’s “Leave Britney Alone!” diatribe at Latarnia forums posted under the On My Mind folder induces vomiting! What a Sellout and Boot Licker Tim Lucas is!!

In case you missed Tim Lucas' truly pathetic defense of Lianne last night (before he deleted it), I managed to grab a screenshot. Want to see the kind of journalistic ethics Lucas holds as the editor of a well-respected genre magazine?

http://i.imgur.com/4rvaIXd.png?1

I, for one, will not be buying Video Watchdog again after this cowardly, blame-the-messenger post that almost totally ignores all evidence.

Mike, you don't have to, but if you feel this may add to the article feel free to use it.

To clarify--it appears Lucas' post is still there, it just moved back a page and I assumed it had been deleted by the author. But should Lucas try to remove it or edit further it sill remain here. He should be held accountable for these comments.

I understand what she did is serious and a slap in the face to the people she plagiarized from, as well as writers working hard to carve a niche in a cutthroat industry. I'm going to give her a second chance - not because of her gender and physical appearance (I'm a woman), but because I believe everyone who's willing deserves the opportunity to grow and change.

Also, not trying to distract from the situation at hand but I don't think her personal life is relevant to this situation. Defining her as a famous person's girlfriend, and the remarks about her appearance are so incredibly sexist. I, as well as many others in the genre community, had heard of her long before she began dating Tarantino.

I understand that some of the comments are troubling in that they equate Lianne's upward mobility with her physical appearance and/or her boyfriend. I simply had to posit things via the Tarantino lens as the irony of cinematic plagiarist Quentin Tarantino now dating a woman who has been making her bones in the same way is simply too delicious for me to ignore. Anyone who knows me knows that I've been calling Tarantino out on his antics since 1993.

It's difficult to see all of the sexism when it comes to this situation but it's also a problem that's inherent in the genre community. In fact, the first time I even heard of Lianne it was in a discussion of whether she had gained her "fame" via her talent or her looks so I've been hyper-sensitive to this. Not everyone is. It's easy to say that Lianne got where she is by her looks.

It's more difficult to admit that Lianne may have gotten to where she is by ripping off writers.

Ms. Spiderbaby is an aggressive and shameless self-promoter who has had no compunctions about throwing around Tarantino's name for attention, so I think it perfectly valid to comment on this area of her personal life.

The irony of Tarantino being involved with a hack is pretty funny since he's been accused of stealing other people's work too. But here's the difference. Tarantino is talented and has a deep and intelligent passion for film. McDougall/Spiderbaby was just looking for a way to crack the industry and where she was located only lent itself to horror. I'm sure she, like many others, "like" horror films but not like Tarantino who is like a walking encyclopedia. You can't blame a girl for trying but to profit off of the works of others to the extent that you are getting book deals is troubling. She just got a hosting gig so she probably doesn't care but I don't think the community is going be as enthusiastic about her upcoming book as we would have been before. I'm sure there are Tarantino fans that will buy it and old guys who like pretty girls who will buy it but... all she has is horny old guys...and frankly she's not the only pretty girl in town.

Lianne's future as a writer does not seem to be that much dimmed after these revelations. VIDEO WATCHDOG will continue to publish her, as will probably FANGORIA and FAMOUS MONSTERS. The editors of those two magazines have yet to address the matter and may never. One assumes that her St Martin's Press book, with an introduction by Tarantino, is still forthcoming.

Well it's just gross on so many levels. Fangoria and Video Watchdog may keep her on because they are her friends and it gives them access to Tarantino but so what? Anyone who would steal the words of other writers so blatantly and pass them off as their own is a con artist. People may applaud that but it's sad.

What bothers me the most about this is that she steals from broke writers who write for free because they are passionate and then because she is affiliated with Tarantino she makes money off of their words by passing them off as her own...then this leads to a book deal...and whomever is editing that book is going to have their work cut out... I mean if he/she passes through a book with stolen bits in it..that's their job on the line and Lianne will be long gone with St. Martin's money. The other piece tat is disturbing is she tried to pass the blame onto her intern. That's sociopathic. A girl who signed up to learn gets blamed for this woman's thievery. She didn't sign up for that. It's just terrible all around.

Her angle has always been validating the efforts of females working in horror. To give genuine credit to them as legitimate players and levelling the gender playing field. So with the endless glamour shots on her website playing up her supposed looks and ripping from other writers...Well, did she make a good case for women in horror? She's not a writer now which makes her what exactly?

She's a con. Promoting women in horror...is a joke. She is promoting Lianne. A woman promoting women in horror wouldn't try to throw her intern Raven Coussins (a woman in horror) under the bus. She is just using "horror" as a stepping stone to being famous...the problem is the ppl she is screwing are the ones she is going to need to bang her gong when she materials like her book to sell. I would seriously be worried if I was the one editing her book for St. Martins. The amount of citations and works from other writing that she is passing off as her own must be massive.

She's just going to keep going at this... she's leaving "journalism" for now... to try to brush up against more famous people that she can attach herself to and use...and then she's going to try use her new found career as a TV host to parlay into other things. Here's the thing, independent companies like Video Watchdog and Fangoria might support plagarism but major companies like FearNet don't. I'm not even sure the Chiller Network (the people who hired her to host) would be thrilled about this. She's dishonest.

The moment when your biggest supporter is Video Horndog ... lol. Karma always comes around one way or another. I wish her luck. She'll need it because she's definitely running a big heist. Even if she never pays the price publicly to our satisfaction, dishonest ppl always suffer in private. There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts." Gandhi

MacDougall apologist Tim Lucas at Videowatchdog says Lianne the Arachnid is accepting all responsibility for her Plagiarism yet MacDougall was pleading with Mirek at Latarnia Forums and Impossible Funky Blogspot to remove any damming evidence of her vacuuming other writers work and taking all the credit, scrubbing her Plagiaristic Posts from the Internet faster than Mr. Clean can make a Toilet shine!! And to add insult to injury as Mirek at Latarnia points out “You may now miss this apology as Lianne Spiderbaby has been urgently retweeting other people's tweets, even ones from weeks ago, to push down the apology into oblivion”. Sure Tim, Lianne is accepting all responsibility for plagiarizing other Writers hard work! Tim I have a Bridge in Brooklyn I want to show you!

I'm a woman and at first I thought that Lianne had simply made a mistake... but now I see there are literally hundreds and hundreds of words, sentences and ideas that she not so brilliantly remixed. And by not so brilliantly... I mean she actually left the parenthesis from the original author on one of her cut and paste jobs. There are incomplete pastings on others. It's obscene. Now I hear she originally tried to blame this all on her intern (a woman who JUST started working with her even though the plagarising dates back months) What's going on here? Is Lianne so desperate for fame and fortune that she will do so on the blood and sweat of other writers. It's shame. She is an insult to all women. Most of us work our asses off and for her to come in as some sort of self-appointed champion for our cause is sick. She has done a huge disservice to women in horror. I normally don't even comment on blogs but this is so foul I had to say something.

You can take other people's work but you have to credit the original author. Doesn't matter if it's on the internet. Before she took down all of her posts, I remember seeing nary a footnote in her work. The fact that she took down dozens of articles...means its insidious in her fake writing. Is she even a writer if everything she's turned in was stolen word for word in many cases from other writers?

Question: when did Spider Baby try to blame her intern? Is there proof of this?

Don't get me wrong, this is a clear cut case of plagiarism. But I'd also like to get the facts straight on all this peripheral stuff. Also: Chris Alexander of Fangoria did mention on Facebook that they will be addressing this issue. As to when, we'll see.

A lot of horror writers don't have two pennies to rub together. Here is a girl who lives rent free with a famous director and then parlays that into getting rates other writers could use to feed their families, buy clothes or summer activities for their kids by using these struggling writers words and passing them off as her own. For what? It's sickening.

Tarantino beware! Lianne MacDougall is only using you! If you don’t make this “Black Widow” Famous she will find another Hollywood Hotshot who will!!! – Without her fake writing, Tarantino’s Fame, Lianne MacDougall is nothing more than a second rate interviewer who will do ANYTHING to be Famous! – TMZ would have a field day with this Whopper!

"An unfortunate recent incident involving a writer who freelanced for FANGORIA – among other outlets – has left many asking for my take.

There’s much I want to say in pointed and revealing detail about this writer and the way I feel about her in the wake of this – apparently still evolving – bit of unpleasantness. But I won’t say any of it here. For all her considerable– completely beneath contempt – crimes against her employers and other writers, she has more than enough ill will being flung at her from the legion of internet “heroes” who positively live for people to fall from grace, so they can swoop in and self-righteously use their follies as fodder for their anonymous, cowardly vitriol.

So instead I’ll just say this.

FANGORIA does not employ those who steal work and claim it as their own. In this very niche field of cinema-lovers who opt to follow their muse and gush about their passions, money is very tight. In print media, where we struggle to survive and find new ways to stay relevant, every dollar counts. There are so many colorful, visionary and brilliant wordsmiths out there who toil without profit that is beyond outrageous when someone rips them off and then profits from it. That this person has been doing this for some time, thinking that their persona’s are of a higher caliber profile enough that they could get away with it is both baffling and nauseating.

That said, this writer who is most assuredly guilty of these crimes, has contributed much to FANGORIA over the last three years, some of it of which I am confident is NOT the product of direct plagiarism. Her interviews and personal connections to her subjects in particular are most assuredly her own. Of course, I cannot vouch for all of it and if any writers out there “open our books” to reveal wordplay that they feel echos their own, please contact me directly.

In the meantime, the question many are asking me is if I believe this person deserves another chance.

We have one more feature in the cannon from her in the-already-gone-to-press FANGORIA #326. It’s a decent interview. But it will be her last for us.

That said, I take no pleasure in this, in watching someone’s dreams – whatever they may be – collapse, especially by their own doings and weaknesses. It’s sad. And at the end of the day, I wish her well and good luck. Maybe she’ll learn from this and become a better person. We ALL deserve that chance.

And to the rest of you out there who are taking great hand-wringing joy over watching her publicly burn, may I gently remind you that this situation only affects her, her employers and those she –now, by her own admission – ripped off and wronged.

Wow. This is just sad because I know how hard some struggling writers work. I'm sure if Tarantino is supporting her through this he is paying his PR team to work over the weekend to handle this. She'll be fine... I guess...but I guess that depends on what fine is. Money isn't everything... it certainly doesn't buy happiness...being able to have a clear conscience is everything. You can't operate "dirty" if you want to be happy.

To answer if Lianne has openly blamed her intern, I can't point to a specific instance but hope others will if they exist. I received an email from Ms. Cousens which contained the following passage:

I have no idea if I was set-up to be "the fall girl", but at first I definitely felt like I was "thrown under the bus". I hope when audiences read her claims against me, they were skeptical. The evidence which supports that 'the intern did it' is very, very weak. I am not scared for my future in the film industry, but obviously her previous claims against me look terrible on my name and resume. I hope it is understood that I was not aware (let alone the culprit) of her actions.

A Question for the Professionals: Today she posted an article that was originally printed in Video Watchdog, a publication for which she was paid. Now she is showing it on her site for free, which kind of negates the reason why she was paid by Video Watchdog for an exclusive article. Is she now stealing from her publishers? Why buy Video Watchdog for one of her articles when you can just read it online for free?

This is so stupid. This girl really thought because she was dating Tarantino that was going to get away with theft? I guess it was working. I mean the bulk of her writing was ripped off from other articles. Then there's the book she has coming out. That's probably riddled with other people's writing that she stole. A person who will do this will do anything... I wonder what will happen if things don't work out with Tarantino. She will probably throw him under the bus... she probably knows all of his secrets and will tell them for the right amount of money. He's probably going to have to pay her to get her to leave...not that she'll ever work in this town again... unless she cons her way into the arms of another director. I thought she was doing good work but no wonder she cranked out so many pieces so fast.. copying and pasting other people's work makes the process a lot faster than actually using your own mind and talent... if she has talent.

I take no pleasure in this and I have been reading the comments. After thinking about this I'm sad. We are such a tight knit little community. Most of us have been fans of the horror genre for decades. To have someone come in and make money off of the blood, sweat and passions of little known writers by passing their work off as her own is very disturbing. Yes, she is pretty but that's not a defense. Everyone hates a plagarist...especially in this case. In most cases, the work she stole was from people who earn very little money and she commands rates because she's Tarantino's girlfriend. I just think someone who puts this much effort into lying and profiting from said lies deserves to be called out. As for the other stuff that the Video Watchdog moron said... no one cares that she's dating Tarantino or living bicoastally... it actually makes the whole thing sicker. It would be different if she was desperate and needed the cash to feed herself or pay her rent...but she doesn't so the point of this is strictly narcissism. There might be something wrong with her.

Lianne Spiderbaby has now changed her twitter handle from @liannespider to @liannemac323...umm...what else did she do? I'm old so pardon the old school reference but after reading all of this and seeing her old Twitter feed she reminds me of girl I used run with back in the seventies... Bonnie Blake who later married and blackmailed and was killed by Robert Blake. This little Canadian filly is a con artist for sure...only in real life it's not as cute of an ending as a Tarantino movie... even if you are dating Tarantino... just ask Bonnie. Oh wait... you can't.

Gosh. I just heard about this. I know I'm late but wtf? As someone who routinely spends my hard earned... and I mean HARD earned money. (I work nights at a hospital.) on magazines like Fangoria, Film Journal International and sometimes a whole paycheck to attend horror festivals... this appalls me. I've seen this girl around for years and read her stuff. I could see was invoking Tarantino's name to further her career and obviously he lets her. But what I don't understand is the deception. How can a girl steal other people's work and pass it as her own unless she is desperate. Desperate for what? She got herself all the way to Hollywood on fake credentials and a relationship with a famous director. Now what? At some point you actually have to have some kind of talent if you want to succeed long term unless Tarantino wifes her. Which would be the best case scenario for her I guess. But a woman who will do this will do anything...like marry you and take you to the cleaners in a divorce a few years later... bad vibes on this Lianne person. Bad vibes.

She's taken down her whole website... she's running scared for sure. I wonder what else she's done. I feel like for her to be taking down websites and changing Twitter handles...this is probably the tip of the iceberg.

I wonder how long it will take before National Enquirer, In Touch and/or TMZ breaks the story with an exclusive scoop! It would make good copy! “Quentin Tarantino’s Spiderbaby caught “Spinning Lies” to cover her Spiders Web of Plagiarism throughout the World Wide Web!”

She stole other people's writing off the internet? Not only is she a thief but she's not that bright either. Could be worse. She could be a social-climbing pseudo-prostitute who uses her feet to get free rent from famous directors who have foot fetishes. Oh wait...

With all the talent in the horror genre hopefully this will shed a light on writers like Jason Pitt and Mary Anne Johanson all the dozens of writers she stole from. She not only stole their words but she stole their money. These writers should have been paid by Fangoria, Fearnet and others. I don't have to time to cull through all of dozens of articles she lifted word for word, paragraph by paragraph and thought by thought but the list is long. They should all pool their resources and seek action against her. She owes them. She got a book deal for her "writing". Everything she has acquired from her "writing" is a lie. St. Martin's should be hiring real writers to write their horror books and then finding directors to write the forwards. The forward by Tarantino sold the book. She couldn't sell it before and apparently the manuscript was a mess and needed a heavy re-edit.

Stop stalking her on the internet and find something better to do with your time. It's not like she copied the whole article. Lets see if she picks up writing again with her own writing and manages to remain in the highlights with several fans. Another female horror writer copied a few paragrahs for one article and she manages to write her own every week with an absurd amount of readers. Lets see what Lianne can do when she is no longer embarrassed. I have faith in her and not because she is pretty.

She's had years to prove what she can do. And what she does is plagarize and social climb. It would be different if she actually had a talent she was trying to get attention for but blatent copying and pasting is not a talent to build on. It's not just one article, it's dozens and it's about 80% of her writing. The other stuff like intros were written by her editors. She can't write. Sorry. She's cute but there are so many prettier girls around. Is she pretty for a horror writer? Sure. But that's a low bar.

“Stop stalking her on the internet and find something better to do with your time. It's not like she copied the whole article”----Whole article!? – You mean page after page, post after post, article after article our little Miss Spider stole time and time again!? – You think she strip mined all her posts because of one little itsy bitsy article!? Wake up! - Spider Baby is in damage control hyper drive to stage manage this train wreck of an expose that is spreading to other internet and major news sites like wildfire.

Wonder why she didn't continue teaching? I'm sure ppl who knew,went to school with or worked with her in Canada have stories. Video Watchdog guy seems to be her lone publishing supporter and he says she's "affluent" and dates Tarantino. So lemme get this straight. She's did all this BS for fame and glory and these ? She needs to have her head examined.

I have a very serious question to the fans of Lianne. Are there one or two articles that she wrote that really stand out as her best? I've only read her introductions to interviews so far and would like to know why she had the hype to begin with.

She had hype after everyone saw her at the awards with Tarantino. Before that she was writing for free. Then Tarantino agreed to write the intro to her book which landed her a book deal and she started demanding rates from mags like Fangoria that don't usually pay. They paid her based on her "living with Tarantino status" which is a joke because, well, quite a few girls have lived with Tarantino. Sometimes several at a time. So, let's just say it's not such an exclusive club. Anyway, back to her writing. She's heavily, heavily edited and the end result isn't that great. She took herself really seriously but the writing wasn't there. However, in some weird fantasy world, horror mags thought they could get shine or access to people from being affiliated with her. Clearly that wasn't the case. Lianne only cares about Lianne. She will try to become a TV host now. That's an arena that's a lot tougher than horror and you can't fake it. Plus in mainstream non-horror entertainment, being QT's gal pal and $5 will get you coffee. George Clooney's gf struggled to get work and she's 100 times hotter and more riveting than this Lianne Spiderbaby individual. But whatevs. If she's smart, while she's young she'll get a rich guy to marry her so she doesn't have lie, cheat and steal from poor writers. Maybe it will be Tarantino but for all of his shortcomings, I don't think he's a moron.

She is a Canadian citizen in the US on a work Visa. She got this work visa due to plagiarizing off people. If she has stolen from you, you may want to alert the relevant officials that she fraud-ed her way into employment, and into the US.

Looks like Miriam-Webster has added a new word to its LexiconMacDougallMac•Doug•allVerbDefinition of MacDougalltransitive verb: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source intransitive verb: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source — Mac-Dougaller noun Examples of MacDougall1. He MacDougalled a classmate's report.2. She MacDougalled an article she read on the Internet.Origin of MacDougallMacDougallFirst Known Use: 2013

This is starting to get really, really ugly. Some of you muckrakers are beginning to look as bad, if not worse, than her. I can't comprehend how and why the people she didn't plagiarize and who didn't employ her are enjoying this so much.

I hoped the Horror scene would handle this situation in a more even handed manner. Please reread Chris Alexander's facebook post, especially the last paragraph.

Um excuse me. This girl earned money, a work visa and a book deal from passing other people's works as her own. Those are three very important and coveted things. People work VERY hard to get one or all of these things. I don't think anyone is wrong to have a not so stellar opinion of her. The readers and fans who are passionate about the genre have just as much right to be upset with a person who pees all over a genre we love so much.

It would be nice if she paid back the monies paid to her and those funds were distributed amongst the writers she stole from. Also, would be nice if St. Martin's Press took her advance back and cancelled the book. Also, we have enough dishonest ppl in the country already, can the US ship her back to Canada please?

This Lianne Spiderbaby knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. She was on her way to becoming an American, lives with Quentin Tarantino, went to the Oscars and that wasn't enough. (What gives?) She had to make believe she was a brilliant writer too? Come on. I wonder if someone had copies of her college papers we would find that she plagiarized her way to her degree too?

This girl is messy. No like. Sooo much plagiarism. No offense to Tim at Video Watchdog but nothing she could have told you privately could possibly justify the volume of work she's lifted and passed off as her own. I'm sure you think she's neato and everything but yikes. She acquired a lot of things (money, work visas and a book deal) not to mention intangibles like notoriety and a hosting gig on Chiller TV. So to play this down like it doesn't matter to anyone but the people she stole from is wrong. She's conned her way into various mediums and paydays. Meanwhile the originators of these works get nada. It's wrong and sorry if it sounds like witch hunt but what she has done is egregious. Her apology was shameful and made it seem like she was just sorry she was caught AND she's taken down her blog and FB accounts and scrubbed her Twitter account clean. It's like she's cleaned up after a crime and wants to act like nothing happened. It's disturbing.

Alexander's sanctimonious "bad fan" post is a little overwrought, especially as many of us are writers who've dedicated years to our craft only to be ripped off and possibly lose gigs to frauds like this. And Lucas's pathetic attempt at a defense smacks of classism. It seems he has no idea how most people---certainly MOST WRITERS---live.

The ridiculous thing is that Chris Alexander knows exactly how most writers live. I think he's torn between towing the company line and not wanting to be rude. Obviously he's watching his back in Lianne suddenly gets support from influential people...and no offense to Tim at Video Watchdog but ain't nobody got time for you and your excuses for her right now. Sorry dude. You like QT and want to preserve that relationship. Cool. We get it. But don't take up for a thief in the face of the crowd that buys your magazine. The crowd includes people she stole from and people who paid money for articles that were supposed to be original.

Personally, I'm boycotting Video Watchdog. Tim Lucas opened his mouth today and made me think differently of him. I'm sure if Lianne was an ugly dude with no Hollywood connections he would not be taking up for her. Not sure what he think he's gaining here. The point is to sell magazines not alienate the people who buy them by putting some girl's interests ahead of his consumers.

If the Writers who she stole from want some instant Karmic payback just pass this info on to TMZ or The National Enquirer and watch Spiderbaby really squirm when her sneaky deeds leak beyond the Horror Fan Community Blogs. Lianne’s greatest fear is that her deception is fully exposed on National Media as this will Snow Ball World Wide in just hours! Her association to Tarantino will guarantee this makes Headline News!!

There was more than one casualty this weekend. Tim Lucas from Video Watchdog has lost a few admirers too. If he was trying to keep a connection with QT at the cost of his credibility, it was a waste of time. QT will drop this girl faster than a snowman.

I don't care what gender, age, race, creed, or ethnicity you are. Nor how pretty, cute, tall, short you are. Nor which celebrity you are shagging. If you steal from other people, then you are a scumbag, and deserve all the shit that gets thrown at you.

As someone who runs a blog, which only has a tiny readership, I make damn sure my work is nothing but my own. Anything I use from anywhere else, is duly noted and linked too, so that my readers are in no doubt about which parts I wrote and which parts are that of others.

Thank You to the person who whistleblew on Lianne, and showed her out to be the fraudulent author that she so clearly is.

In regards to the brutal backlash of Lianne, this is NOT coming from nowhere, nor do I believe that majority of people are jumping on the bandwagon either.

People in Canada (at least) know that Lianne's reputation as an insincere social climber preceded her long before she started dating QT. The stories we heard about her hooking up with famous people and hooking up and dumping other people in the community who couldn't get her where she needed to be were endless and most of the close knit horror community experienced these moments firsthand.

The reason why I think she is being ridiculed right now is not because of a "sheep" mentality, but because she already burned a lot of bridges and now people are not afraid to express it.

It should also be noted that Lianne didn't harm the reputation of "women in horror." She merely just harmed her own.

This unfortunately has been a long time coming...and karma is a patient bitch.

One thing that really disgusted me was last year when she was dating QT and covering Django Unchained for Fangoria.

No matter what I think of her now, that lost all of my respect then not just for her but for Fangoria (what wasn't already gone).

It's called a conflict of interest. You DO NOT write about your significant others movie. That right there should have made people question her integrity, but it seemed like no one bringing it up then.

St. Martin's Press should revoke her deal. Not fair to the rest of the writers out there who spend years crafting completely original works just to have something like this happen.

It's clear that Lianne has no idea of what a journalist is or should do so that she didn't recuse herself from covering her boyfriend's movie is no surprise. Or did she at least use the "full disclosure" caveat?

Tim Lucas sir, I used to have respect for you but that all ended when I read your defense of this con artist Lianne Spider (aka McDougall) You say that ppl are attacking her because she's young and affluent? Are you crazy? That makes it worse. If she is affluent and stealing work from other writers for nothing other than ego then she's a sociopath. Either way, this is not someone you should be defending. We all know you are defending her because of your relationship with QT. But what will you do if those two break up? Then you're left with a lesser reputation and she's off to con a new group of people. What are you doing Tim? You're going to let the Siren song of a hack writer with a faux glamorous life run your credibility into the rocks? Are you crazy? If this girl was scrambling to collect $100-$200 paychecks here and there from magazines, then how glamorous could her life really be. QT obviously isn't foolish enough to give her the AMEX card or else she wouldn't need the money. So if he's not financially invested in her, you shouldn't be either. Don't let her ruin your business.

Lol.. this is really rich. I know Lianne. She's not sorry she stole. She's sorry she got caught. You guys defending her are naive. She's full of lies about everything. Even what you think you know about her isn't true.

Lol.. this is really rich. I know Lianne. She's not sorry she stole. She's sorry she got caught. You guys defending her are naive. She's full of lies about everything. Even what you think you know about her isn't true.

Wow, guys....these comments are getting really ugly. Until today, I thought this was evolving into an interesting discussion but now you're dragging her love life into it? That's not relevant at all.

If you're using the 'Anonymous' option to provide views and insights you don't feel comfortable making public, that's one thing. But to hide behind your 'anonymous' status to slander and defame, that's another.

Try to be responsible with it. And remember. Yes, she did a bad thing. But at the end of the day, a person's career and dreams have been potentially shattered. So there's sadness on all fronts.

I'm trying to keep up here. I was gone yesterday. So Lianne Spiderbaby has now deleted her apology? So if you delete your apology you're not really sorry. She has scrubbed her twitter timeline which means she's trying to fool and dupe someone who might be ignorant to all of her shenanigans. Interesting. I agree with the con artist assessment now that I see what she's done to her Twitter feed and how she's erased her blog. It's the tech equivalent of throwing away an old ID and getting a new name and ID. Only a con artist does that. Good luck with that Lianne. The world is too interconnected for smalltown con games.

No Mike. Check Twitter. Go to @liannespider she deleted her old account and replaced it with BS, totally erasing everything including the apology. But she used another account with some history on it and changed that monniker to @liannespider Con games. It's like when a criminal gets a new ID made to avoid the law catching up with them.

Yes, there is definitely something dodgy going on with this girl but at the end of the day. Karmic law always prevails. She may be getting away with it outwardly now but everyone pays the piper. In the grand scheme of things she's not really even that big of a deal. Her acts have just been so deplorable because of the sheer volume of stolen materials she passed off as her own. I think we are just shocked at the level of dishonesty from someone who supposedly was living a happy charmed life. I guess it was fairy tale. Happy people with wonderful lives don't do what she did.

Hey Mike White you need to check out her new Twitter! She completely rebuilt her site vaporizing her apology and retweeting with posts as Nutty as a Squirrels dinner and for “Feedback’s” ridiculous statement “a person's career and dreams have been potentially shattered” I see it’s OK for Spiderbaby to plagiarize other peoples work and get the credit for it but how dare we shatter Spiderbaby’s hopes and dreams. Sorry Cinderella’s shoe doesn’t fit Spiderbaby anymore!

I think Chris Alexander & Tim Lucas are right on the money. Reading these anonymous internet comments, there is an undeniable level of Perez Hilton style tabloid vitriol that's rooted in jealousy and sexism. Had the writer in question not been in a high-profile relationship, I'm willing to bet 90% of the mob wouldn't have even cared. If you were a writer who was directly effected, then I understand the anger. But the level of comments that evoke QT's name over and over show that these people care more about social status than ethics. Rather than viewing this as an unfortunate situation for all involved, people seem to be getting a sick thrill from grabbing the torches and pitchforks and lashing out with the same level of contempt reserved for a Kardashian.

With all due respect Andrew, I think the point people are trying to make by invoking QT's name is that why would a girl who is with a famous director have to plagiarize? 1. One would assume that QT isn't charging her rent and so this isn't a desperate monetary decision 2. If you have access to QT's mind, why the f-ck would you need to copy other writer's opinions and words? Any article she writes about film could yield original gold if she had a twenty minute convo with her "boyfriend" about it. I guess we are all perplexed at how none of this adds up. It's disturbing that with all the advantages she had, she chose to steal.

There's definitely some schadenfreude going on but I can understand it.

This really speaks to a larger, systemic problem of the industry so I see that as being part of the reason for people to pile on, as well.

As for Tim Lucas being right, his idea of "only two parts [of her Skin I Live In aritcle] show evidence of cribbing in Lianne's research, I would say the word "plagiarism" doesn't really apply." I have real problems with this. Meanwhile, Chris Alexander would like to sweep this under the rug as soon as possible because, well, maybe he's got some skeletons in the closet aside from Lianne. I think Chris needs to tread carefully on this topic and not be so self-righteous.

We've already read on facebook that Lianne's crappy writing at Fangoria was given a pass because, "she's a cute girl." Who knows who else got away with things because of their looks rather than their talent? These editors (Chris, Tim, etc) helped create this beast, now they want to make us forget that they did by saying we should all offer up olive branches to poor, hurt Lianne.

As Tim put it, she's "young, beautiful, affluent, educated, athletic and seems to be living a charmed and golden, bicoastal life, now with one of our leading writer/directors on her arm."

Is some of the piling on excessive? Yes. Will all of this lead to more investigation of other online/print "journalists"? I hope so.

I think another part of the piling on is due to there being a flood of resentment of Lianne, be it for her physical attributes or her sudden rise to fame. That her career was built on fraud is simply too much to deny.

Lianne admitted her wrongdoing, which is great. But now she's taken down her Twitter and hidden her blog to hide her tracks.

Let me tell you something. Lianne is not hurting right now in the least. Don't be fooled. She thinks she's gotten away with it. She is delusional because she thinks she has scammed a small sub-section of horror fans but is making advances to the mainstream anyway. Time will tell but if the likes of Chris Alexander and Tim Lucas are examples of the types of people she is dealing with and fooling to gain employment, then maybe she is getting away with it. Who defends a plagiarist. I mean really?

Exactly. The more you investigate her writing the more plagiarism you find. Why do you think she yanked down her website with all of her writing and scrubbed her Twitter clean? At this point her work is 80% stolen and the 20% that is supposedly hers was heavily edited.

The sad thing is MacDougall will probably get away with stealing other Writers hard work and taking all the credit for herself as her unbridled thirst for Fame knows no limits. MacDougall could care less if the story breaks on small Horror Fan sites as long as the story doesn’t appear on CNN and hurt her juggernaut to Celebrity. Heck I bet she is devious enough to get Tarantino to marry her without a prenup or get pregnant with his Child guaranteeing her a major part of his fortune.

Okay so I kind of see what's going on here. Tim and Chris have to defend this fraud for a couple of reasons. 1. They hired her knowing she can't write. 2. The PAID her to write whereas they don't pay the majority of writers who they get to write for the magazine who are actually talented. 3. They are somehow invested in protecting their relationship with the person Lianne is supposedly dating. Even though, in reality. through her, no connections are gained are lost for them QT would still participate with both of their mags if it served his films. These two really should examine themselves and see what a monster they created. She's basically a cold sore on the industry.

-This person marketed herself as a writer and received payment for her content-She DID NOT WRITE HER OWN CONTENT-In some cases, she stole BLOGGER content that was written with no financial payment, and then received her own reward for it

I find this positively despicable. There are thousands of film lovers out there blogging for the love of cinema who would KILL to be able to make a career out of it. The fact that Ms. Spiderbaby marketed herself well enough to etch out a position in this field only to plagiarize the work of 'amateurs' is hugely insulting.

I can understand some of the hesitance people have to leap on this because it could very easily be construed as sour grapes or misogyny. But really, the fact that Ms. Spiderbaby made it as far as she did in the film journalism world is insulting on its own to the position of women in this field. I know dozens of female writers who could have written better articles for this publications, but they're not busy whoring themselves out with model photos because, you know, they're busy WRITING. I hope that in some ways, this serves as a wakeup call to editors that talk about 'women in horror' without actually reading their words.

There's an unbelievable level of BS going through the Lianne supporters club. This girl stole other people's intellectual property and tried to use it to win awards. Chris Alexander is an obnoxious charlatan and a blight on the pages of Fangoria. In the past Chris claimed that a Canadian make-up artist named Remy Couture who was nearly sent to jail and bankrupted defending himself from unlawful accusations due to making 'scary art' was an opportunist. You can read about it here: http://walrusmagazine.com/article.php?ref=2011.10-profile-disturbing-content

And now the same guy who criticized an actual artist for getting arrested and nearly imprisoned, is saying that a proven plagiarist and social climber is only being criticized because of jealous fans? What a load of bull pucky. This guy spits on the great heritage of writers like Chas Balun and David J. Schow. Fangoria used to be a magazine the horror community could respect. Now it's a joke.

Wait. Hold on. I heard she tried to win a Rondo Award for best writing? Meanwhile everything she's written was mostly plagiarised. Oh that's psycho behavior. Now I actually feel sorry for people who are her friends. If she's that devious she's probably using everyone in her circle and they just don't know it.

Just wanted to chime in here and state that Tim Lucas and the attempted whitewashing of the abuse that writers contend with in the marketplace right now by apologists who just want us to be quiet and let it blow over has sickened me.

I've talked with Chris Alexander and I've decided not to continue my column with Fangoria online nor will I write in print. This isn't a mark against Chris by any stretch, I just don't think I can say what needs to be said while inside that apparatus.

It hurts a lot to make that decision but I need to feel clean when I criticize the industry and I don't think I can by being complicit in it at the same time.

I considered Lianne a friend. I spoke to her just yesterday. I won't share the private details but she knows where my mind is at and I feel so good about that and about this whole decision to speak up.

I was complicit in helping Lianne move up in my own small way. I was fooled. As Chris said, I drank the Kool Aid. I did it because I made a decision not to be a cynic about her, to just take her at face value. Big mistake.

Make no mistake, there is more to this story and it will come out eventually.

I'd like to take the discussion beyond Lianne and focus on the larger sickness that drives this behavior. The devaluation of human talent, the conditions that lead to us not valuing ourselves or our work enough to be duly compensated which I think contributes to people rationalizing stealing another's work for their own gain without considering the value of what was stolen.

More and more media outlets don't even pay a dime anymore. They steal from us in almost the same way but at least they let us keep our bylines.

We need to decide that we are worth something if we expect anyone else to treat us accordingly. We at least need to have the discussion about these issues and I condemn Lucas and other apologists for trying to shut that down to protect privilege over truth.

To anyone who read me at Fangoria over the last few years, thank you sincerely. Not sure where I will end up but I feel good.

Kudos Dave Pace for saying like it is! – “apologists who just want us to be quiet and let it blow over has sickened me”. And “I condemn Lucas and other apologists for trying to shut that down to protect privilege over truth”. Dave your words mean a lot to the Horror Community!

It boggles my mind why people think Chris Alexander is supporting or defending Lianne. He's just as appalled as anyone by her actions.

All he said was not to be a vitriolic jerk when criticizing her, and to leave her fate in the hands of the people she wronged because pile driving won't get anyone anywhere. If you have issues with that, fine, but don't put words in his mouth, or get angry with him for something he didn't do.

Sorry Justin Osbourne is the same deal... he copied and pasted other peoples artwork and SOLD it to bands/companies under the impression it was his original work. Taking a piece of Frazetta's work and then having someone pay a substantial amount of money for an "original" piece is busted. Spiderbaby is the same deal.

No major ill will towards Chris but he should have named Lianne Spiderbaby (MacDougall) by name and also not said anything about the fans of horror who are disgusted and saying they are disgusted by her and her actions. Her showboating and shameless self promotion of herself as QT's supposed girlfriend are part and parcel of why she got these writing jobs so its fair for ppl to comment on her personal life.

And for “Feedback’s” ridiculous statement “a person's career and dreams have been potentially shattered”

No, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's anyone's fault but Lianne's. I'm just saying that even though it fully IS her fault, and she fully deserves to be discredited for her actions and chased out of her chosen profession, she's still a human being.

A lot of what I'm reading here amounts to a feeding frenzy. And I also object to people using the 'anonymous' feature to spread malicious slander.

I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of anonymous, cowardly slander from individuals with absolutely no grasp of basic human ethics, so I can relate I guess.

But make no mistake - I FULLY condemn Lianne's actions as much as anyone. (Well, anyone that isn't Tim Lucas obviously.)

Feedback says… Never fails to impress with their logic “I also object to people using the 'anonymous' feature to spread malicious slander” So Spiderbaby’s VERIFIED AND PROVEN WITHOUT A DOUBT PLAGAIRISM is O.K? And “cowardly slander from individuals with absolutely no grasp of basic human ethics” Feedback you mean like Lianne’s human ethics for stealing other writers work! It looks like Spiderbaby’s Damage Control Team is in Full Effect! – Can you make it any more obvious?

Anyway Chris' FB on the subject was nice. But the main issue is this girl was paid for stolen work. I guess many of us are confused because even with her plagiarizing, her articles were not brilliant. So why did she get paid while others didn't?

Well the good news is Lianne got te fame she's been chasing for years. Everyone knows who she is now. The problem? It's not for a good reason. Being known for being dishonest isn't as good as being known for a body of work or talent or anything. So we'll see how this works out for her.

I love how Chris Alexander and Tim Lucas are so quick to call the outraged masses "trolls" when actually what they are is pissed off consumers. These are the same people you expect to turn around and buy your magazines right? Unless Lianne is writing you both a big fat check, you shouldn't be so quick to insult people who are rightfully outraged. You will need them long after Lianne has moved on to more important people.

There used to be a saying that "all publicity is good publicity" but in these days of reality stars we have more than enough harmless do-nothings to talk about. So ppl like Lianne Spiderbaby are under the class of people who are notorious but not in a profitable way. Google Jayson Blair. Scorned journalists aren't really useful to anyone. It would be different if Quentin made her the star of his next film I suppose. But barring that... I don't see anything good coming from this. She can't get a job for mainstream print now. I guess she could write a script but if she can't write her own film review, how the hell is she going to write a script? I'm astounded she has a book deal. Do they know she probably plagiarised it? We live in a world of smart young ladies like Lena Dunham create things. This Lianne girl doesn't have any actual talent. If she did, she wouldn't have to steal writing and pass them as her own. Shameful.

Well Mr. Feedback, if you knew Lianne's reputation in Toronto you would know that calling her a "whore" is actually a statement of fact. But the real issue here is that she's a liar (trying to blame her intern) and a thief (trying to pass other writer's works off as her own)...so in the scheme of things the whore bit is probably the least of her concerns. She's actually most successful in that arena. That work is all her own

For the record, everyone keeps referring to Lianne as "young". She's 29. That's too young to know better. In fact, that's middle-aged in Hollywood. Her intern she tried to throw under the bus who had no knowledge of what Lianne was doing is ten years younger...that's young. The sad part is (one of the many sad parts) is Lianne was posing as someone trying to promote women in horror when really she was just using that "niche" to promote herself.

This whole thing makes me think the girl isn't that bright. Um..lemme get this straight? She lives with one of the greatest directors of our time and she had to pilfer opinions about movies from unknown bloggers on the internet? What?! That doesn't even sound logical. Then she did this all for low level magazines. Who lives with Tarantino and doesn't go straight to Hollywood Reporter or Entertainment Weekly for a real job instead of swindling these little unknown magazines out of a hundred bucks per article. That is moronic. Sorry.

Hats off to Chris Alexander from Fangoria. I disagree with calling out people who are pissed off about this Lianne Sugarbaby fraud person because I think the outrage is warranted from the wronged writers and the horror community at large. How did this interloper start getting paid while so many are starving is outrageous considering she clearly can't right or even copy and paste properly?

So Tim Lucas has issued his unavoidable mea culpa, in which he now says he was in possession of evidence since July 11. This article and MaryAnn's went up July 13. More than 12 hours later, Lucas claims: "I took the (in retrospect) presumptuous step of posting on a message board about all this -- before I was in possession of any facts". Apparently only now, four days after evidence was presented, does Mr. Lucas care to take even conisder that evidence.

The facts were plainly laid out for you, Mr. Lucas, especially since you (apparently) had this exact same information before Mike broke the story. Why did you not spend any one minute of those 48 hours investigating these claims against one of your own most high-profile writers, even if only to dismiss them as false? Sure you may have plugged a few sentences from her new piece into Google, but is that really enough?

More importantly--why is it that, mere hours after being tar and feathered by a major online outlet as a "horndog", only then did these "facts" suddenly dawn on you and compel you to write a apologetic blog post?

While your decision to remove your blinders is better late than never, it's still a complete failure of journalistic ethics and PR on your part. You could have handled this with an ounce of class and dignity--even Chris Alexander managed that--but apparently not.

Looks like Tim Lucas also pulled a ”MacDougall” by pulling his original statement on Latarnia Forums defending Spiderbaby! After realizing the people who pay his bills didn’t buy his “Let’s get out the Spiderbaby Crying Towel” for Lianne Snowjob. The Lightbulb over Tim Lucas head blinked on when he realized he was Knee deep in Spider Doo Doo and caved faster than your 401K to preserve his empire and do an about face putting Lianne on the launchpad jettisoning her out of Videowatchdog like a Circus Clown from a Cannon!!!!

"Tim Lucas head blinked on when he realized he was Knee deep in Spider Doo Doo and caved faster than your 401K to preserve his empire and do an about face putting Lianne on the launchpad jettisoning her out of Videowatchdog like a Circus Clown from a Cannon!!!!"

Damn that made me laugh.FYI It's called VIDEO HORNDOG for now and for all of eternity.

Fucking a lot of people in a scene and being the girl on the arm of the 'cool crowd' is not a criminal offense. It's not whorish activity either. It's about being sexual and part of a scene and wanting to be seen. It maybe ambitious and calculated but so what. I'm thinking some of you would be horrified to think about how many of cinematic icons employed tactical moves at the start of their careers.

Pathetic is a grown woman who spends her time plagiarizing for low level magazines thinking she is doing something. Who does all that for little to no pay off? What was the point exactly? She just insulted a bunch of writers who could and would be the same people to buy and support and watch her products. Makes no sense.

You meet the same people on the way down as you do on the way up. If she thinks she's "winning" because she is on the arm of the cool crowd and getting a slew of publicity for being a dishonest hack then she should really talk to Charlie Sheen about delusional thinking.

The way you do one thing is the way you do anything. If this girl is willing to steal and mislead employers for cash and a work visa, she'll throw pretty much anyone under the bus. Not good. I'm assuming QT has proposed to her because no new person in Hollywood should enter on a trail of deception and lies when it comes to their creative endeavors. She should be building bridges not breaking them and anyone who is worth a damn who trusts her is a fool after this. Sure, people can change but doesn't appear to be contrite at all. she had a half assed apology up for a minute and took it down. As a supporter and fan of horror I feel like she is an affront to the industry and will not be watching any Chiller show she's on if that's true.

Since this article has gone a little viral (just a touch since Gawker picked it up), I'm going to turn off anonymous comments for a while. I don't want people to (continue to) call Lianne bad names. Some of these comments have either skirted or crossed the line into misogyny.

Hold up. Is her twitter status supposed to be an apology. "The deed is done." Uh, I've never heard of this chick before today and I'm appalled at her for everyone she ripped off and the publishers who bought her stuff and the of course the readers who shelled out dough for stolen writing.

First, I thought she ripped one chick off in one article. Now I see she ripped off dozens of writers and stole hundreds of words, snatched up dozens of paragraphs and thoughts from a bunch of people online for dozens of writing assignments. No telling how many books she stole passages from. She's a piece of work. And all she has to say is the "deed is done." She seems to feel above it all. I actually think karma is going to get her worse than what anyone can say on these message boards. Katie Couric said there is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women. She exploited women in horror for her own agenda and then she stole the words of other women and passed them off as her own and requested payment for them. Egregious.

Reading through this thread has left me truly disgusted. Yes, I am disappointed that Lianne lifted so much work without crediting the original source. More so however, this vile and bitter witch hunt that now seems to be after her.

"She's cute but there are so many prettier girls around. Is she pretty for a horror writer? Sure. But that's a low bar."

This comment, along with all the comments about notifying immigration and the like are particularly disturbing. It's like some of you are getting a sick sense of glee from attempting to destroy her. And what are most of you truly pissed about...the fact that she lifted words from others...or that she's a pretty girl with a high profile boyfriend!?!

As a struggling writer myself, I get why those she stole from would be pissed off. And yes, if she copied your work, ask for compensation and an apology. For everyone else though; jump off the high horse already!!

I would not be surprised if she has been plagiarizing since she was in university. I would love for her cinema studies essays to be reviewed by her profs. they it's software out there now that can do this for them as well. also appetizing to her linked in page she has a degree from OISE...a graduate education program and actually fairly hard to get into (unlike the US- teachers in Canada tend to come through competent and competitive programs after getting a BA and are well paid).

Finally given her education she would definitely know exactly what plagiarism is and it's consequences. I have a grad degree from U of Toronto and trust me, plagiarism cases are taken very seriously there. Of course one would have to get caught first and if her profs trusted or were impressed by her she might have slipped through.

one more thing: I did not know of this person until I read about her on gawker. as someone who works in education I loathe plagiarists and their who defend or minimize plagiarism. those who expose plagiarists are doing important workby protecting original thought and intellectual effort. I use these cases in class all the time. Thank you for exposing this weasel! it matters!

Morleysaurus, woman to woman, I have to gently warn you not to drink the Lianne MacDougall koolaid.

Don't let your perceived friendship with her cause you to make solidarity with someone you think she is. It is hard to convince someone they are wrong about someone so I'm just putting it out there for you to consider that perhaps you have been duped with regard to her character like so many others.

She would have you (and anyone who will listen) believe she is being lambasted because of her perceived relationship with a certain famous director. No. She is being lambasted because she has systematically over quite a long period of time duped editors who published her large volumes of works she stole from other writers and attached her name to, she fooled and used writers she buddyed up with knowing she would need them to promote herself and her works, lied and misrepresented herself and duped an entire community of horror fans, employers and creatives she got to do things for free for her under the smoke and mirrors of being affiliated with QT. She used his name while crafting her lies and so of course it's being used in conjunction with her now. Not because of the masses but because she's been attaching herself to his brand the whole time she's been procuring work as writer since meeting him. Obviously this has nothing to do with him.

Many ppl are weighing in anonymously because they have been fooled by her duplicity and they don't want to be contacted about this but are trying to alert ppl who may not know her as well about her character.

When she got caught with this plagiarism mess her response was also very telling-- she lied at first and tried to blame someone else. Then she deflected, then she admitted the truth briefly, tried to talk writers and editors into believing in her again after they received the damning materials saying that she would craft a proper apology. She never did. She tweeted briefly and quickly yanked the half-assed apology down. Meanwhile she tried to deflect from it all saying she's receiving death threats.

Meanwhile the death threats are totally unrelated to the plagiarism. Also, this claim is dubious since she said in her letter to editors about this that she's been receiving death threats for a month. However, she was tweeting her whereabouts all over LA and Canada pretty much daily for the past month. You do the math. You see what you are defending here? I could go on. She tweeted about running a charity race in San Diego, collected money for it and never actually ran it...the list is endless.

Morleysaurus, I suspect are woman of talent and integrity and so you want to believe the same about Lianne. You can stand with Lianne or you can accept that she is fooling you in the same way she fooled others and save yourself disappointment down the road. Doesn't matter what you do, but I would be remiss if I didn't try to tell you what you are dealing with.

Interesting discussion spawned about the value of writing to genre outlets. Some dispute over Fangoria writers being compensated with both EIC Chris Alexander weighing in as well as managing editor Michael Gingold.

I have at least one source right now that says he was never paid for print work at Fangoria nearly a year ago. Got in touch with me after Alexander, bravely in my opinion, posted his rates.

To what extent does writing for free devalue the art of the pen? Can a plagiarist rationalize their theft this way?

Notice how web writing isn't paid for at Fangoria and she stole mostly web writing. In fact, I find it very interesting that most of the web content is written by staffers, who are paid to write for Fangoria. So really, they value web writing just not from certain people. I knew this already, but to see it in public sparks debate I think.

So is it fair to have an underclass of web writers who aren't paid? How many of them would be too many? What percentage of the content is really from paid sources and unpaid sources? How many words have unpaid contributors put out for how long? Is it morally okay to enter into exploitive agreements with people even if they don't object to being exploited?

I write for Fangoria on a regular basis, for the print magazine. I get paid. I do not know what other writers get paid, and have never asked. I also write for several of the other outlets Lianne wrote for, including Famous Monsters. I get paid to write for them as well.

I think there was confusion with some people who have made claims of not being paid to write for Fangoria. It was unclear if they were talking about print or web and unclear Fangoria made a distinction in all cases. We know of course that everyone gets different deals sometimes, outlets have to get the most for their freelancer budget after all and I don't begrudge that.

I think the issue is becoming clearer now and it's a minority of web content. Which is something I still find to be something that can be better handled, perhaps with some community support.

My personal experience is not being paid but I've only written for web. This is consistent with Alexander's remarks.

I still think there are valid questions and the more I talk to other editors the more I see (not surprisingly at all) they are all struggling with the same problem. It's a dilemma all media is going through right now.

I agree with the few and the sane on here this has gone way over the top. Calling immigration? Calling her a cold sore? Slut shaming her? Place in hell? Be angry about her plagiarism but give it a rest because in two weeks NO ONE will care. And when Grindhouse Girls comes out you'll get to go on amazon and get off there. Jesus, wtf?